More than 50 percent of Turks believe that religion will have a diminishing influence on society in Turkey in the future, according to a recent opinion poll.
The results of Metropoll’s “Turkey’s Pulse” survey for July were announced on X on Friday by Professor Özer Sencar, the owner of the company.
The participants of the survey, conducted on 1,699 people across 28 provinces in Turkey July 12-16, were asked, “Some people believe that religion will have an increasing influence on society in the future, while others think its influence will diminish. Which viewpoint do you agree with more?”
While 50.9 percent of participants said “religion’s influence will decline,” only 23.8 percent of them said the opposite. People who believed “religion’s influence will remain the same” made up 17.2 percent of respondents.
The largest group among those who felt that religion would have a diminishing influence in Turkey consisted of supporters of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), who represented 53.4 percent. They were followed by voters from two allied parties: the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) at 43.9 percent, and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) at 42.8 percent.
A total of 30.2 percent of AKP supporters said they believe “religion’s influence will increase” in the future, followed by supporters of the MHP at 24.3 percent and the CHP at 22.2 percent, according to the survey results.
“I think the more politics deals with religion and tries to increase its influence on society, the more the influence of religion on society will decrease,” Sencar said, commenting on the results.
The increasingly authoritarian governance of the AKP, which uses Islamist rhetoric and enjoys the support of various Islamic sects in the country, has disenchanted many Turks who disagree with the AKP about the role of religious sects and the country’s religious directorate (Diyanet).
Turkey is a predominantly Muslim but officially secular state.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has often said his goal was to raise “pious generations.”
This creates enormous tensions with more liberal Turks, who fear that Erdoğan’s rule is undermining the republic’s secular foundations.
Erdoğan and his AKP government face widespread criticism for attacking the lifestyle of secular individuals and imposing a religious lifestyle on people through their policies.